Edmonton Kidical Mass

Considering that we woke to a downpour that morning, and we were competing with Fathers’ Day for peoples’ time, we think the first Edmonton Kidical Mass was a roaring success!

We had bubbles and sidewalk chalk, which were a big hit with our littlest attendees.

Pedalheads’ booth had information about the bicycle camps they run for kids from preschoolers through to teens, and had some prize giveaways.The craft table was stocked with star shaped cardboard and foam, washable glitter glue, and sequins, with the intent that they could be used as spoke cards. Mostly they didn’t dry in time to be used, and I suspect wouldn’t stay in spokes without an assist from some tape.Some of the older kids created elaborate bicycle decorations with the supplied crepe paper ribbon while waiting for everyone to have faces painted and balloons made.Janice from Wonderstuff making magic with her paintbrush.

Matching face-paint and balloon animal. Cool!Elaborate balloon art on Erin’s helmet. It was fascinating to watch him at work.Robert was so excited about his dragon, with spiralling flames and knobs all down his back. (Note the print on his shirt. I want it in my size!)

Big thanks to all the families who joined us for part or all of the event, Wonderstuff for the fabulous face painting and incredible balloon art, our guests Pedalheads (the bike camp people, not the local LBS) for the safety talk before the ride, and our sponsors at Bikeology! Thanks also to local radio station NOW fm and the Danone people who unexpectedly dropped by our picnic site with tunes and treats.

Signal demonstration before the ride.Helmet fitting check, led by the rep from Pedalheads.And we’re off! We rode around the park to the playground. This shot was taken over my shoulder and you can see my helmet balloons in a corner of the frame.Pulling in to the playground area at the other side of the park.The grownups’ bikes at rest beside the playground. (You can see my huge balloon hat in the bucket of the Madsen.) Unfortunately none of my playground photos turned out, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that the kids had fun and we stayed longer than intended.It’s a smidge blurry, but I love this shot of Karen with 2-day-old Charlotte in her sling, standing by as the boys get bundled into the Madsen. (Karen didn’t ride, but came down to the park just to hang out.)My daughter Audrey on the ride back around the park to our picnic site. (This was meant to be another group shot, but taking photos over your shoulder as you ride makes it really hard to frame things properly. This is actually the only one of about 10 photos I took on the way back that turned out.)

A few things we learned:

– Face painting and balloons take time to do well, so we ended up only having time for a single loop around the park, instead of two or three as originally planned. Playground stops with small children also always take longer than you think they will.

– Balloon decorations on helmets look fabulous in photos, but even the slightest breeze will make the decorated helmets very uncomfortable to wear. My tall balloon hat actually moved the helmet around a lot on my head, which was distracting and felt unsafe. Balloon art that strapped to handlebars or wrists worked great, though.

– Kids on balance bikes or training wheels travel at speeds low enough that some cargo bikes will feel unstable and need to pass, so choose which adult will act as the sweep accordingly.

– We heard from a few attendees that they knew families who had not been able to come because they didn’t have the time to ride to the event, or a vehicle that allows them to transport their cargo bikes or kid-haulers across town. Of course organizers in other cities have had the same issue. Our solution will be to move the ride around the city, and so we have created an Edmonton Kidical Mass page on Facebook where we can run polls to figure out which neighborhoods to visit next. Please join the conversation there! Our next family ride will be in September or October.

Do. Want.

– There is now a company in Montreal who are importing bakfietsen and other Dutch bicycles to Canada, and that’s how Karen and Mike came by their beautiful bakfiets. It’s fitted with two seats, so all three kids (ages 5, 5, and 7) (or, as Mike pointed out, one tipsy adult) can ride in the box. Sometimes the eldest child gets out and helps his Mom push it up the river valley hills, but otherwise they find it well suited to Edmonton’s terrain.

PS: we are trying something new by posting all the photos on Flikr (you can see the whole set here), then adding images to the posts using the URL. Let me know in the comments how that works, ok?